Billie Holiday Was Born
April 7, 1915
This lady could sing the blues! Jazz singer Billie Holiday, later nicknamed "Lady Day," was born on April 7, 1915, in Baltimore, Maryland. In her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, Holiday says, "Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married; he was 18, she was 16, and I was three." Despite a challenging childhood and no formal musical training, Billie Holiday made her professional singing debut in Harlem nightclubs in 1931. By 1933, she had made her first recordings. Do you think her parents really named her "Billie?"